Northwest Dive Club

Which is better for cold water (Fat Dryglove Fingers)?
As an experienced diver, new to spear fishing?
Has anyone ever used a Travel Pole Spear?
After a short search on the computer I think the Travel Pole Spear would be good for a first timer, like myself.
Does anyone have one I could use (before I buy)?


Still undecided to shoot w/ camera or spear. I've heard that the Tiger Rockfish in Alaska, are good eating.

The pole spear is a PITA to use with gloves. I have used a version with a trigger mechanism that was a little better but a gun is definatly my preference.

Depends on what your going after. I've hunted with both for years. The spear pole is great for small to medium size fish, easy to use with any gloves. The Gun is much better for big fish. As long as you get one with a big enough trigger guard should work fine.
Words of wisdom... if you can't see as far as the spear will go and possible you might miss.... don't shoot, your buddy might be there!

BASSMAN wrote:Which is better for cold water (Fat Dryglove Fingers)?
As an experienced diver, new to spear fishing?
Has anyone ever used a Travel Pole Spear?
After a short search on the computer I think the Travel Pole Spear would be good for a first timer, like myself.
Does anyone have one I could use (before I buy)?


Still undecided to shoot w/ camera or spear. I've heard that the Tiger Rockfish in Alaska, are good eating.

Pole spears work great for anything up to about 10 or 12lbs. Perfect for rockfish, small Lingcod, greenling and flounder/sole. You can also use a smaller, low-power gun with something like a seacoil to replace the regular line. I've got several pole-spears ranging in size and weight - one is a travel model that splits into three sections. It works great - it's actually the heaviest of all and will work fine for sizable Lingcod as it has the momentum to drive the tip properly where the others are better suited to smaller fish and a paralyzer tip. As for camera/spear... why not do both? I've got a pneumatic gun and a ridiculously oversized bandgun too - happy to show them to you if the opportunity should arise.

I'd go for something like a JBL 38 special. Fairly inexpensive, simple to use and good for all sizes of local fish. One thing I'd recommend for all but the biggest Ling and Cabbies is a coil lanyard instead of the thin rope that comes stock on most guns. You'll save yourself alot of time reloading, especially in the beginning. Pole spears, while effective, can sometimes be insufficient to penetrate some of the larger fish resulting in an injured fish that swims off to die elsewhere. Some people compare it to bow hunting but our dives are limited in time and visibility so we can't really track a wounded fish, it simply becomes seal or crab food. Therefore the closer I can get to one shot one kill the better. In that department the gun simply outperforms the sling IMHO.

Mattleycrue76 wrote: Some people compare it to bow hunting.

Good analogy Matt. As far as efficiency of shots per minute, its hard to beat a pole spear. However, the effectiveness of the pole spear can take a while to master. Learning to aim it correctly is a skill in it's own. Even though it is only a millisecond, and hand movement after you release the thing will cause a big deflection in where the pointy end is going... in my experience anyway. AND to keep the pole spear loaded while you are tracking a fish requires a good deal of pressure on your hand. I found that if I kept it loaded for any longer than about 10 seconds with my dry gloves on, my grip wold slowly release.

If you go with a gun, make sure you check out the trigger and safety mechanism WITH your gloves on prior to buying it. the JBL is a great gun, but the safety on the older models was a PITA for me (the metal tab on the side). The newer models with the plastic safety is a much better design. Down here in Florida, it seems nobody dives with the safety on anyways.

On a final note, the nice thing about a pole spear is that you can pick one up for around $30.00

I'd go with the gun, pole spears are a major pain.

I have been diving with a pole spear and for smaller fish it works great. I picked up a JBL 38 special NW triple bander. I figure for the smaller fish I can just use one/two band and as the size/range increases I can use two/three bands. I love the pole spear but my hand gets tired of holding it locked and loaded after 10 seconds or so. I also have a jbl magnum that I used when I lived down south in New Orleans. I have never used that one around here as it is just more gun then what I feel I need around here banging around the rocks and the surge off the OR coast

I love polespears for rockfish. I have a pneumatic gun for Lings, but it is a PITA to load underwater. My buddy likes his JBL 38 special band gun (only uses one band; doesn't use safety, but doesn't stretch band into place until ready to hunt).

With the polespear, I am ditching the paralyzer tip and puting on a flapper tip. I lost a big rockfish once, and it made me ill to watch it flop out of my visibility range after seeing all 3 tips of the parylizer go through it then come out (the fish was suspended, and I couldn't pin it against a rock fast enough).

I have a couple of cheap polespears laying around; I'd be happy to loan you one to try out.